Casing for draft gears



Feb. 1, 1955 H. E. TUCKER 2,701,063

CASING FOR DRAFT GEARS Filed Nov. 28, 1951 2 ShegLs-Sheet l INVENTOR. WM/ W, M 9

Feb. 1, 1955 E, TU KER 2,701,063

CASING FOR DRAFT GEARS Filed Nov. 28, 1951 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 r r I T E 1 v :7 I

flu k 7, 7* if r W INVENTOR.

Mal/67m BY United States Patent CASING FOR DRAFT GEARS Herbert E. Tucker, Chicago, Ill., assignor to Cardwell Westinghouse Company, a corporation of Delaware Application November 28, 1951, Serial No. 258,557

3 Claims. (Cl. 21331) This invention relates to casings for draft gears, and has for its principal object to reduce the weight and cost of the casing without sacrifice of strength.

Other objects and advantages of the invention W111 appear as the description is read in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. l is a horizontal section through the center sills and draft gear of a railway car;

Fig. 2 is a plan view of the draft gear casing; and

Fig. 3 is a transverse section of the casing on the line 3-3 of Fig. 1.

These specific drawings and the corresponding descr1ption are used for the purpose of illustrative disclosure only, and are not intended to impose unnecessary limitations on the claims.

In Fig. 1, the reference characters and 11 indicate the center sills of a car having buffing lugs 12 and 13 and draft lugs 14 and 15 and defining the standard 24%" draft gear pocket.

Within the pocket is a draft gear generally indicated by 16, which in all important respects corresponds to that disclosed in the patent to Sproul 2,121, 833, June 28, 1938, which is incorporated herein by this reference.

The housing, indicated generally by the reference numeral 17, includes a casing which is a tubular body (Fig. 3) having a side wall 18, an opposed side wall 19, and top and bottom walls and 21, although the walls blend into each other and form a tube in general conformity to the draft gear to be enclosed, which draft gear can be applied to any standard pocket either with Farlow attachments and horizontal yoke or A. A. R. attachments and vertical yoke.

The right or front end of the casing 17 is open as indicated at 22, but the rear or inner end is closed by an integral head or follower 23 substantially flat on its outer side 24 to cooperate with the draft lugs 12 and 13 and the yoke 25.

There is an axial opening 26 in the head 23, and a concentric tube 27 projects inwardly from the head 23, and is connected with that head and the walls of the casing by eight ribs 28--two on the vertical, two on the horiontal, and two on each diagonal, as best shown in The ribs have end portions or walls 29 aligned with the inner end of the tube 27, against which a ring-like spring seat disk 30 rests.

At least two of the ribs 28, shown in Fig. 1 as the upper and lower, are provided with parallel walls 31 and inclined walls 32, which serve to guide the spring seat 2,701,063 Patented Feb. 1, 1955 30 and the springs 33 and center them within the easing substantially as shown in Fig. 1.

This construction of the inner end of the casing 17 is strong and sturdy, and permits improved foundry prac tice. The construction shown in the Sproul patent at 18 required a large number of separate cores, and the instant improvement can be made with a single dump core to form the ribs, etc.

Draft gears are worked in under a spray of water for a number of operations, during which the water tends to collect in the lower or inner end of the casing. Also, draft gears are frequently stored where water can collect in the casing. For that reason, the tube 27 between the ribs 28 is provided with a series of slots 34 adjacent to the inner face of the wall 23.

In one form that has been found satisfactory in practice, the wall 23 is /3" thick; the tube 27 is 1%" long; the ribs are A" thick; and the slots 34 are 1 /2" long and 4 wide.

I claim:

1. In a draft gear of the type including a coil spring for insertion between fixed lugs in the draft gear pocket of a railway vehicle, the combination of :a housing having parallel side walls and having an inner casing comprising lengthwise walls forming a generally tubular body having one end closed by a substantially planar end wall adapted to engage some of said lugs and provided with an inwardly extending tubular protuberance, the lengthwise walls all being of substantially equal thickness and at least two of such walls, opposed to each other and adjacent to the closed end of the casing, flaring outwardly toward said closed end but being parallel to each other adjacent the other end of the casing, and a plurality of integral radial ribs joining the protuberance with said lengthwise walls and said end wall, at least some of said ribs having flat surfaces normal to the longitudinal axis of the casing and substantially coplanar with the top of the protuberance to form a spring seat, the outer portion of at least some of the ribs which join the protuberance to the flared walls being inclined inwardly toward the closed end of the casing to guide the draft gear spring to its spring seat during assembly, said opposed flared lengthwise walls combining with said inclined ribs to give the gear great resistance to compression forces.

2. A draft gear as set forth in claim 1 in which a plurality of circumferential openings are formed in said protuberance between the juncture of said ribs with said protuberance, with the spaces between the ribs being freely open to the interior of said body.

3. A draft gear as set forth in claim 1 in which the flared lengthwise walls constitute the side Walls of the casing and in which the parallel side walls of the housing constitute integrally formed T-shaped parallelfianges.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,682,817 Walker Sept. 4, 1928 2,121,833 Sproul June 28, 1938 2,160,417 Hedgcock May 30, 1939 2,510,278 Dath June 6, 1950 

